maratoolCircus Bell
How to do the circus bell
- The circus bell is an oversized dumbbell with a thick handle. Begin with the dumbbell between your feet, and grip the handle with both hands.
- Clean the dumbbell by extending through your hips and knees to deliver the implement to the desired shoulder, letting go with the extra hand.
- Ensure that you get one of the dumbbell heads behind the shoulder to keep from being thrown off balance. To raise it overhead, dip by flexing the knees, and the drive upwards as you extend the dumbbell overhead, leaning slightly away from it as you do so.
- Carefully guide the bell back to the floor, keeping it under control as much as possible. It is best to perform this event on a thick rubber mat to prevent damage to the floor.
Muscles worked
The prime movers are the deltoids, which raise and rotate the upper arm at the shoulder joint.
Because more than one joint is moving, the work does not stay in one place: the forearms hold the grip, which is often what gives out first; the glutes finish hip extension; the hamstrings assist hip extension and slow the knee down.
The lower back, traps and triceps take a share of the work as well.
Every exercise for:ShouldersForearmsGlutesHamstringsLower back
How this movement works
The working muscles shorten as they drive the load away from you, and more than one joint changes angle to do it. Load spreads down a chain instead of sitting on one muscle, which is why a compound push handles more weight than any single-joint alternative — and why joint position, not the muscle, is usually what fails first.
It is filed under strongman, where the load is deliberately awkward rather than balanced. Most of the difficulty goes on holding on and staying braced.
What you need
These train the shoulders too, using equipment this one does not:
- Clean and Jerkbarbell
- Cuban Pressdumbbell
- Double Kettlebell Jerkkettlebell
- External Rotation with Bandband
- External Rotation with Cablecable
Difficulty
Listed at expert level. It asks for range, stability or speed that takes time to build, and it punishes a rushed set-up much harder than an easier movement would.
Of the 141 shoulders exercises in this database, 7 are listed at expert level.
Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.